If, as rumor has it, conductor Fabio Luisi is poised to suc ceed the ailing James Levine as music director of the Met, Saturday afternoon’s elegant performance of “Ariadne auf Naxos” showed he’s the right man for the job.
In this 1916 gem, a young composer struggles to get his first opera — also called “Ariadne” — on the boards, despite a meddling patron and temperamental divas. The resulting mash-up of Greek mythology and slapstick comedy inspired one of Richard Strauss’ most sophisticated and subtle scores.
Luisi’s firm, light touch was clear from the first downbeat, evoking transparent orchestra textures and fleet tempos that drove the action forward without ever feeling rushed. Even the Wagnerian love duet between the grieving Ariadne and the god Bacchus seemed to shimmer and hover.
Bolstering the maestro was solid casting from the Met’s deep bench. Even with superstars like Deborah Voigt and Jonas Kaufmann busy in “Die Walkure,” the company can still pluck artists as superb as Violeta Urmana and Robert Dean Smith for Ariadne and Bacchus.
Though Urmana’s dark soprano remained earthbound in the heroine’s dreamy arias, she put over the poetic text with rare sensitivity. In a stratospheric part that strangles most tenors, Smith coolly lobbed out one high B-flat after another.
Less special was Kathleen Kim as comic lead Zerbinetta. Approximate coloratura and garbled German downgraded her 11-minute aria from showstopper to nonstarter.
In contrast, Joyce DiDonato triumphed in the short but central role of the Composer, her slender, tangy mezzo rising to ecstatic heights in the anthem “Musik ist eine heilige Kunst” (Music is a holy art). In scruffy ponytail and 18th-century kneepants, the 40-something singer embodied this angsty teen artist with a delicate balance of pathos and humor.
Among a stageful of cameos, Paul Appleby sounded sweet-voiced in his Met debut as the clown Brighella. The hidden treasure of the performance was Tamara Mumford as Ariadne’s attendant Dryade, a mellow, wine-dark mezzo that projected effortlessly even in the lowest register.
“Ariadne” is a speciality of Levine’s, who has conducted more than half its 89 performances at the Met. But now it’s clear that Luisi’s ready to make the opera, and the company, his own.